edited from the MSS by Webb Wiggins and Roger Brunyate

Peabody Baroque Ensemble

Webb Wiggins, conductor

Roger Brunyate, stage director

Wednesday & Thursday, February 23 & 24, 2000, at 7:30 PM

Miriam A. Freidberg Concert Hall

Restoring a Hit:
Stage director Roger Brunyate discusses the hit status of
Cavalli’s Egisto in its own time, and the process of making a
new performing edition today.

Synopsis of the Action

Over a year before the action begins, Egisto (a descendant of the
sun-god Apollo) loved Clori and she him. But while together on the
seashore on the island of Delos, they were captured by pirates and sold
separately into captivity. At about the same time, Climene, a young woman
on the island of Zacynthos, was captured by the selfsame pirates on the
very day of her marriage to Lidio, and sold to the same cruel master as
Egisto. Now, a year later, they have managed to escape, and Egisto has
escorted Climene back to her home island of Zacynthos, where the main
action takes place, and they each determine to find their original lovers.
What they do not know is that the pirates brought Clori to Zacynthos,
where she fell in love with Lidio, while Climene’s brother Ipparco
also fell in love with her.

The action of the opera takes place during the day after Egisto and
Climene have landed on Zacynthos. The division into acts reflects the
passage of the day from dawn through night to dawn again in keeping with
Egisto’s heritage as a descendant of the Sun. The first act
(morning) establishes the situation with the two mis-matched couples:
Lidio and Clori as lovers, and Egisto and Climene as friends. The second
act (afternoon) concerns the attempts of Egisto and Climene to be reunited
with their former lovers, only to be harshly rejected by them. The third
act (night and dawn) brings the story to a happy conclusion, though
catalyzed by two almost-tragic events: Lidio’s capture by Ipparco,
and Egisto’s madness. In between, various scenes in the heavens show
the machinations of the gods behind the sufferings of the characters on
earth.